The 10 best freelance web designers for hire in 2019

Wouldn’t it be great if wearing the right outfit made you better at work? That’s actually how web design works—it doesn’t just make a site look nice, it also increases conversions, sales and user-enjoyment. You can read the plethora of studies to back it up, but the gist is quite simple: good web design makes users happy, and happy users are more likely to sign up, check out and just keep clicking.

There’s a lot of nuances involved in web design: visual flow, color theory, proportions, layout, typography, imagery, user psychology and many more. It’s hard to find a good freelance website designer who knows how to apply each of these, so we thought we’d give you a head start by finding and listing the best freelance web designers available.

How did we choose these as the top website designers?
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Of all the best freelance web page designers in the world, how did we hand-select the best to be on this list? At 99designs, it’s our job to connect clients to the best designers for them, so we use a number of systems to evaluate, categorize and rank each freelance web designer according to three main criteria:

1. Overall design quality

For every web designer in our database, we have our team of experts personally assess their skill level. Aside from essentials like appearance and usability, we also dive deeper into areas like conceptual thought, technical execution and their knowledge of design principles. Each designer is ranked either Top, Mid or Entry level, and clients can easily see this level and select a designer to work with based on their needs and budget.

2. Web design experience

99designs also tracks each designer’s performance in particular categories of design and notes their strengths. That way, we can recommend not just the best designers, but the best logo, web, t-shirt, etc. specialists.

In the list above, all of the designers boast an impressive record for web page design projects.

3. Professionalism

Lastly, we make sure our designer’s behavior lives up to our professional standards. This incorporates how they interact with clients, meet deadlines and communicate in general.

What to think about when hiring a web designer?
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Web design is a vast field. Before you commit to a designer, it helps to narrow down what, specifically, you want and need for your site. Take a deeper look at your web design goals by asking yourself these questions:

Does your industry have special needs for websites? For example, ecommerce sites need checkout pages; does the designer have experience with those?

Do you prefer a particular image style like hand-drawn illustrations, landscape photography, or video? Have you already decided on a color scheme? Again, explore the designers’ portfolios for matching styles.

What do users (or data) say about your current site? Sites you’ve had in the past? Are there any outstanding complaints you’d like to fix? Are their any favorite functions you’d like to keep?

Once you know which areas are most important to you, you can pay attention to these when analyzing the freelance designers above. Look for these areas in their portfolio to see if they match your needs.

Are you ready to hire a top freelance web designer?
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Think of web design as the grease that keeps your business running smoothly. No matter how great your business strategy is, if the presentation is poor no one will take it seriously. Web design not only “dresses up” your site to make it more appealing—when done right, it removes many of the obstacles and hindrances in the way of conversions, plus it makes interacting with your site that much more fun and enjoyable.